Grand Prix 6 and club 10k Championship: Oxshott 10k

What a day for running! Not quite so cold as Saturday had threatened and dry, it was pretty much perfect, and 28 (count ’em!) 26.2 members took advantage. We can start with the winners of the club championship, and the report and full 26.2 results are inside the read more link, awaiting your perusal.

10k Champions

Women, Past the PostKatherine Wilson (39:26)

Women, Age-gradedAnn Bath (79.47%, the highest of the day)

Men, Past the PostJack Holland (36:50)

Men, Age-gradedDavid Pimm (77.94%)

Results below, Grand Prix points updated and available in downloads.

The Oxshott 10k consists of one little (1k) loop and one big loop, officially with “a rise” between 8 and 9k, but that ignores the undulations over the first couple of kilometres – thanks to Jack Holland‘s pre-race warning, I at least was prepared for those.

I hope everyone enjoyed their run. It’s a weird feeling listening to talk of others’ improvement when you’re either injured or have had a bad run, so for those in that category – there’s always another day. For most though this seemed to be a race for solid running and in many cases, whacking great improvement. Comparing times to last year is interesting and having crunched the numbers a little bit, I’m ignoring Kevin Stone‘s 16 minute advance on last year as an outlier. The 26.2 ladies take today’s most improved team prize, and can each have their own copy of the virtual trophy, with Caroline Dawson‘s 4:41 shading Natalie Coghlan‘s 4:40 difference, backed up by a tremendous 4:07 from Amy Tomlins and 3:34 from Libby Marchant. Amy also broke, or more accurately took out back and gave a right good smacking to, the hour barrier with this run; congratulations! Honorary ladies’ team member Derick Wilkie took 3:14 off last year’s time, along with the scalps of messrs Tozer, Sunderland and Bryant who might all as a result be advised to avoid the bar if they don’t want to hear about the race again and, possibly, again. Ann Bath proved that training to run for hours need not hurt pace by bringing home the ladies’ Oxshott improvement with a clocking 2:19 faster than last year to take the club 10k age-graded championship.

David Pimm also rolled back the years by knocking nearly two minutes off last year’s time in taking the men’s age-graded championship. In doing so he guaranteed that there are still only two names on that trophy; Rob Hinton would have needed to find another 42 seconds to take the trophy, and I’d have needed 71. Katherine would have taken Ann’s title with a run 76 seconds quicker. None of those improvements are completely impossible to imagine, but show how far ahead both were, and how well Ann and David ran to be worthy champions.

In the past the post race, neither Jack nor Katherine were challenged by 26.2 runners. Katherine was first female in the race and although the second was not too far behind, those watching could see Katherine would take the race even from within the first kilometre. Jack was suffering from the illness that robbed him of a “real runner”‘s sub-hour 10 mile time the weekend before and had a lonely race for 5th overall-still far too strong for the rest of us, still much keener on celebrating others than his own achievement at the end. Well done both.

I had a textbook run to claim the first pb of the day. For a change I managed to stick with a group rather than accelerating too hard at the beginning and suffering later. I had an Elmbridge runner for company up to about 6km when all of a sudden Chairman Joe came sauntering past down hill. Some days you’re up for it, others you’re not; today was definitely a “go on then” day. I kept Joe company for the rest of the race, several times trying a surge only to find him magically maintaining the gap. At the time I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t make an impression, but Joe did point out I’m not exactly a quiet runner so he could hear exactly where I was and move accordingly. The gap increased a smidge with a few hundred metres to go and I thought perhaps he’d got me, but managed to summon an extra burst as we turned the final corner into the sports ground to very finish ahead. Some might say that was rude on someone’s birthday. I couldn’t possibly comment.

Behind us, keeping us in sight and digging deep was the rapidly-improving James Thurston, over whom any victories have to be cherished and regarded as precious. Rob Hinton had Steve Watkins in attendance which I imagine is like running with a secret service detail, keeping cars and stray dogs well clear with a well-placed word or 9. Moustafa‘s run suggests a sub 40 will come sooner rather than later, with Alasdair Reisner and Richard Goulder perhaps looking towards that mark on a flatter course. Simon Gerrard ran strongly without the benefit of a 26.2 vest close up ahead, though there was quite the cluster a couple of minutes back. Zoe Ashcroft had a solid run to finish 10th lady overall and ahead of Natasha Swan, who I always notice because she became a rival for Aimee while she was on the South Coast. So, er, good win there Zoe!

Our captain has been improving steadily, and conservatively moved his target down just a minute from a 50:00 10k. On the day he ran like a man possessed, jumping away from his usual pace group and onto the back of the next one. Literally so – he got so close to Libby that he couldn’t avoid a small crash once they were over the line. Libby had a tough run, heading out a group of 26.2ers but finding that Natalie has improved enough to get ahead of her rather than staying behind. Both, though, significantly quicker than last year. Graham Ashby stayed ahead of Ricky Emery, while David Pearce‘s bionic finish was not needed with no clubmates close by; he another one to better last year, by 58 seconds. Great to see some signs of comfort returning to Andrea Bennett‘s running, as she finished within a whisker of Caroline‘s hugely improved run, while Maria Cenalmor nearly took a Tozer scalp, with Peter 8 seconds ahead.

In the Grand Prix standings, Katherine made it a perfect six for a total of 120 points after 6 races. Katherine has also taken advantage of Ann’s absence from GP races to head the ladies’ age-graded standings. Libby and Andrea are second and third in both, though with Zoe threateningly positioned having run fewer races. In the men’s, Jack has an only-slightly-imperfect 119 in the PTP standings, keeping Joe and I some way behind. Jack also heads the age-graded championships, though there things are closer with Rob and I having a race in hand.

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